Healthy Tips for National Holidays

When it comes to food, it's important to prioritize quality and truly enjoy the eating experience rather than solely focusing on the quantity you consume. Reflecting on the food options available is key to cultivating a long-term healthy balance and breaking automatic mindless eating habits.

Take a moment to examine all the food options available. Often, we choose foods simply because they are there, without considering whether we truly enjoy them. Take a short break after looking at all the food options. Give yourself the time to select what you really like, creating a balance between the Nutrition your body needs and the sensory satisfaction you get through sight, touch, smell and taste.

How to make healthy choices in typical holiday foods?

Staying in the present moment by cultivating mindful eating.

When you use consciousness in eating, you can still enjoy, but from a higher, broader state, so it will be easier to evaluate the different options and choose from internal wisdom, rather than from the impulse to eat for free. eat. In this way you can even notice how you often eat out of inertia, because it is there or because others do it too, which is neither bad nor good, but can often be unnecessary. Understanding that festivities are not only about eating by the piece or who eats more, on the contrary, it also means sharing with others from other sources, not only through overeating.

Strategies to avoid excess calories and weight gain

• Serve on a plate: If you serve on a plate, you will be able to visualize how much you eat, instead of "pecking" and thereby losing the perception of how much is enough
• Don't rush: many times we want to eat everything there is. It is important to remember that there will still be food later and we will enjoy it more if we are a little hungry. If you choose to eat because it is tempting, that is not bad either, but be aware of the consequences that this may have on what is important to you today
• Eat slowly, chew more: remember that the limit of how much to eat is not just focusing your attention on the image of the empty plate, but you have to feel how your stomach (at least in the middle and at the end of the meal) You feel fuller and more satiated. Eating slowly and chewing more can help.

Healthy alternatives to traditional National Holidays foods

• While you wait for the main meal, choose healthy snacks such as vegetables (celery, carrots, cucumber and cherry tomatoes)
• Opt for sauces based on natural yogurt spread, chickpea or vegetable hummus, and healthy fats such as olives or nuts, or prepare guacamole
• Prepare grilled vegetables or anticuchos to reduce anxiety and maintain a healthy focus
• If empanadas and choripán are available, choose between one or the other; It is not necessary to consume both. You can also select which accompaniment you prefer
• If it is customary to consume roast meat, be sure to accompany it with leafy vegetables and a variety of colors on your plate. If you like to accompany the roast with potatoes, corn or rice, choose one of the three and in a smaller quantity than the rest of the foods.
• If there is dessert, check with your stomach if it is ready for more. You may consider leaving it for later or the next day
• As for alcohol, it is more advisable to choose wine. However, regardless of your choice, remember that you have already consumed enough food, so alcohol consumption should be moderate to avoid stomach problems. No one wants to feel uncomfortable, therefore, it is important to regulate yourself to avoid feelings of heaviness, bloating, and feelings of guilt. If you drink alcohol, take it as a "taster", you can, for example, enjoy a glass of wine through Mindfulness (being attentive in the present moment), bringing awareness to the aroma and to each sip, savoring on the palate, stopping the act of swallowing automatically for a few seconds, to truly enjoy your concoction. Drink water from time to time and enjoy, as I mentioned before, quality is better than quantity.

Balancing holiday food enjoyment with health

The option for this is using consciousness in intake, it is the best way to enjoy while taking care of your health because it activates internal wisdom from knowing what you are doing with awareness, deactivating automatic patterns.

On the other hand, it is important to do physical activity, even more so when during the festivities there is a tendency to overeat, this will help balance the excesses and even reduce anxiety about eating.

How to deal with social pressure to overeat during the holidays?

Social pressure is always an issue, because in one way or another you may be tempted, however, consciously strengthening your decisions, I insist, is the basis of everything, from there you can make all your decisions, but from a “I” I decide” and not from “I got carried away and now I regret it.”

Eating consciously, moderately, listening to the body's internal signals, allowing yourself the space to wait a while and evaluate real needs is a good plan, as is not giving many explanations, as well as lowering the profile of food, because It is not the most important. What is relevant is what you are celebrating and who you are with.